Nazir to face trial in terror related cases in Kerala

Suspected Lashkar operative T Nazir and his associate Shafas, who are in the custody of Bangalore Police in connection with the 2008 blast there, will be handed over to the National Investigating Agency, probing various terror related cases in Kerala.

Suspected Lashkar operative T Nazir and his associate Shafas, who are in the custody of Bangalore Police in connection with the 2008 blast there, will be handed over to the National Investigating Agency, probing various terror related cases in Kerala.

An order in this respect was passed by the Bangalore Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court-I today, a senior Kerala police official told PTI over phone from Bangalore.

The terror suspects will be produced before the Special NIA court in Kochi, the official said.

Nazir, a resident of Kannur, was suspected to have masterminded a well orchestrated network to recruit youths from Kerala to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit to carry out subversive activities.

The terror suspect remained elusive for months till his arrest last year along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Nazir had confessed to have plotted the March 2006 blasts in two crowded bus stations in Kozhikode and torching of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus near Kochi in 2005 to protest the detention of People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Naser Madhani in a Coimbatore jail in connection with the 1998 serial blasts there.